In this phase of the race, none of the top candidates will admit he or she is a candidate. | AP Photos
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Pointing to Mississippi Gov. Barbour’s use of a PAC registered in Georgia (which is allowed to accept unlimited corporate cash) to buy a voter list in Iowa, Ryan called prospective 2012 candidates’ denials that they’re trying to boost – or at least explore – their own White House prospects a “charade” abetted by an FEC that has done little to enforce the testing-the-waters rules over the years.

“We’re talking just under 35 years of big-time political candidates and their lawyers repeatedly returning to the Federal Election Commission to stretch, and stretch, and stretch further the boundaries of candidacy and testing the waters,” said Ryan.

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Twenty five years ago, this kind of stretching the rules – and the FEC’s complicity in it – alarmed then-FEC commissioner Thomas Harris, who filed a dissent to an FEC opinion clearing then-Vice President George H. W. Bush to use such a committee in the run-up to his 1988 presidential campaign. Allowing candidates this avenue undermines contributions limits, Harris wrote in 1986, and puts the FEC “into the absurd position that it refuses to acknowledge what everyone knows: that Vice President Bush is running for President and is financing his campaign through the Fund for America’s Future, Inc., which he organized and controls.

“ … That, of course, is why so many would-be Presidents, of both parties, have created and utilized PACs of this sort in recent years. The Commission, however, is willing to turn a blind eye to the realities so long as the presidential hopeful announces periodically that he will not decide whether to run until some future date (after the 1986 election is a popular date at present). This is just plain ridiculous.”

This year, such activity has been taken to an unprecedented level, according to Ryan, thanks partly to the slow start of the campaign, but also to the wider use of innovative campaign financing vehicles that seem to test the bounds of the rules.

“Many of the predicted contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination are sophisticated players who are aware of what the laws are and have a strategy to maintain plausible deniability of wrongdoing if they ever get dragged before the FEC in an enforcement action,” he said.

But even with expert legal advice and well-honed strategies, prospective candidates have sometimes had a hard time navigating the labyrinth of rules that apply to would-be candidates.

Take former House Speaker Gingrich.

Last week his aides signaled he would be registering an exploratory committee with the FEC, which would have required him to disassociate himself from his main political group, a so-called 527 group called American Solutions for Winning the Future that has raised $52 million by leaning heavily on corporate and wealthy donors who could not give six-figure checks (or any checks, in the case of corporations) to a potential Gingrich 2012 campaign.

But Gingrich – who had cited legal issues related to American Solutions as the reason he sat out the 2008 presidential race – later changed course amidst concerns about severing connections to the 527 and other ventures, deciding instead to file an exploratory committee only with the Internal Revenue Service, which did not immediately trigger FEC rules. Gingrich confessed some “unfortunate confusion.”

Then there was celebrity real estate tycoon Donald Trump’s run-in with the campaign finance rules this week, when one of his top executives, Michael Cohen, flew to Iowa on a Trump corporate jet for meetings with GOP leaders to gauge sentiment towards a Trump 2012 bid.

"Because for Romney and other potential GOP candidates, deliberate obfuscation about their true ambitions is not just about being coy. It is about money and steering clear of election law violations." - the liberal/progressive POLITICO............... with another "in-kind" contribution to Obama's 2012 campaign........

So it looks like our dirty dishonet liberal/progressive MSM wolfpack press is "howling" that none of the GOP possible nonminees have declared.....................lol

Look POLITCO.........you guys have already started your smears and line of attacks against all the GOP candidates................ so why the big deal for them to declare.....your attacks have already started in support of the Obama 2012 campaign...................everyone remembers NPR don't they....

The real question is when? will the MSM wolfpack press come CLEAN and apologize to the American people and Romney for a "lying and misleading narrative" on Romney's popular HC plan, 60-70% approval, in Massachusetts that today has 98% of Adults and 99% of children insured all without rasing taxes $1.

It's the very un-popular Obamacare with a 38% approval that is going to cost Obama a second term, amoung other things.

One thing is for sure America needs a new POTUS and its going to be a long two years before the America people can fix that sad fact................

In 2012 lets's hire/elect the most qualified candidate to handle the severe economic and financial issues that this incompetent Administration refuses to address.

If Romney stands up to teachers' unions in a major way, and takes that on as his one key issue, I believe this is one way he can get elected. I see RomneyCare as his big liability. He should stop trying to say RomneyCare is different than ObamaCare. Few believe him, and it makes him look non- credible and deceptive when he tries.

Yeah the "racist" TEA Party is showing growing support for the only DECLARED candidate for 2012..........

Herman Cain.

I looked....did I miss his name or picture in the article?........Oh, well.

Here he is.......

I would recommend to any American who wants a real leader who knows how to be an EXECUTIVE, and not just a pol in the most important office of the federal government, look into this man as the anti-Obama and someone who could truly bring our country around......

The Republican Kabuki theater is a like bunch of prostitutes playing coy. It allows them to thoroughly violate the spirit of every federal election law without being sent to jail. Not that any would see jail time if they admitted they were running and continued to break the law by raising big monies illegally; the FEC is as gutless as the lion in The Wizard of Oz and as toothless as a newborn baby. The Kabuki theater also gives them more time (not that they need it) to hone the art of dissimulation. They can see how many times they can lie about being "undecided" before finally admitting they are running.

They can see how many times they can lie about being "undecided" before finally admitting they are running.

This is not just a Republican problem.........

"I'm really not trying to be coy here," [Obama] said when asked by the Chicago Tribune last December. "I'm not going to speculate." This is not exactly General William Tecumseh Sherman saying "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."

Of the five, so-called "serious candidates," I think Pawlenty is the most likely to win the nomination and general election. However, both, Palin and Huckabee could overturn the apple cart and take it all the way as well... if they have the will to do so.

Oh puhleeeze, Politico. You are clearly frustrated that none of them has announced because you just can't wait to launch your anti-Republican/anti-Conservative attack dogs. It won't work again this time. And this is your headline story??? Take a deep breath and let it go out smoothly.

The GOP should be glad it's early. So far the only one I see who isn't a clown or a guaranteed loser against Obama or both is Pawlenty. Ron Paul doesn't have a chance either. If the GOP wants my vote they are gonna have to do better than this

FREECON You are correct. But Ron Paul will never get either the media attention he deserves nor will he ever be embraced by the GOP establishment. This is because he thinks outside of the box and he is willing to make REAL change. This scares the bejesus out of all those who thrive on the status quo

yeah.........what Romey should say is that his HC plan is popular and supported by that state's Attorney General while Obamacare is being sued by over half of the US State Attorney Generals.....

Romney should say that his popular unique state HC plan passed the Mass. House 198-2 the Obamacare model was rammed thru 219-216.

Romney should say their plan was mostly designed to get people insured NOT lower costs which is part of the lying and misleading narrative by our MSM wofpack press and Slick Huck.....TODAY 98% of adults and 99% of children have insurance in Massachusetts and don't have to hang out in Emergency rooms. What other US State can claim the same...........bottom line if the "residents" approve of what their politicians then their doing the people's will. Did Obama, Nancy, and Harry do the people's will with Obamacare?

Romney deserves credit for the first-in-the-country State HC plan one of many that Americans will see over the next several years.........Utah has now followed Romney in Massachusetts with their own specify designed State HC plan, Utah is one of America's most Conservative and Red states...............Rick Perry and the GOP, in Texas, are designing their own State plan......

Romney is right the best way to lower HC costs and get the most people insured is by each US state to roll out their own state plans if...................IF the state residents want one..........its up to each individual state not some one--fits all bribe-ridden partisan Federal HC plan, Obamacare.....We are sure our MSM wolfpack press and those from the extreme Right will continue to lie and mislead the American people with regards to Romney's popular Mass. HC plan.............

Does everyone see what we moderates and conservatives that make up 76% of the US population have to put up with?